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MIAMI -- Look. Can I be honest? My story today, this story you're reading, was going to predict BCS doom for the Florida Gators. That was my working theory, and I'll tell you why: From the moment they arrived in South Florida to prepare for the national championship game, the Gators seemed a little too preoccupied with the no-huddle attack of the Oklahoma Sooners.
OK, preoccupied isn't the best way to describe it. Concerned is a better word. Scared. Freaked out? That's better. Florida seemed freaked out by the Oklahoma offense.
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| Gators LB Ryan Stamper said Oklahoma's no-huddle catches some teams unprepared. (Getty Images) |
"Well, our major concern ... is their tempo," he said of the Sooners' no-huddle attack in which two running backs gained 1,000 yards and quarterback Sam Bradford won the Heisman Trophy. "It's hard to really practice, just to simulate, just getting those plays in."
Said UF linebacker Ryan Stamper: "When they do the no-huddle, a lot of teams just weren't ready for it and not lined up correctly. It's going to be pretty difficult."
Said UF safety Major Wright: "We haven't played a team as fast-paced as them. They get on the ball and are ready to go fast."
Told you. Florida is freaked out. And with good reason. No team in college football was able to squeeze off as many plays this season as the Sooners' 1,036. And they made those snaps count. In a season in which new NCAA clock management rules shortened games and lowered scoring across the board, the Sooners became the first team in modern college football history to score 700 points. They enter the BCS title game on an NCAA-record streak of five consecutive games with at least 60 points.
So the Gators should be freaked out. And until Monday, they certainly sounded freaked out. So that was my story. Poor Gators. They're scared of the no-huddle.
Turns out, they were lying.
Like UF coach Urban Meyer wasn't going to be ready, right? In a profession of friggin' control freaks and anal geniuses, Meyer is the biggest control freak, the most anal, of them all. (All due respect.) And he and his staff came up with a plan to get ready for Oklahoma's no-huddle attack, a plan sniffed out by yours truly. And it's a hell of a plan.
The Florida defense hasn't been working in practice against an offense as fast as Oklahoma's.
Florida has worked against an offense that's even faster.
How is that possible? I'll tell you how, and it's devious. Meyer wasn't content to make his defense defend a UF scout team simulating the Sooners' offense. He had them defend two offenses:
One scout-team offense to run the play. A second scout-team offense waiting, as soon as the whistle blew, to sprint onto the field and run the next play. Then the first unit runs a play. Then the second. Back and forth the scout team offenses go, one play leading to the next to the next to the next, with no break for the defense.
That's how Meyer has gotten the Gators ready.
"We tried to over-exaggerate things," said Sean Cronin, the UF assistant coach in charge of the scout team. "We try to overdo it, make the defense see something they couldn't possibly see in the game."
That has worked for the Gators in other games this season. To prepare for explosive Vanderbilt quarterback Chris Nickson, Florida's scout team put a variety of running backs and receivers at quarterback, anyone who could match, or better yet top, Nickson's athletic ability. Turned out pretty well. Florida won 42-14.
Before playing South Carolina on Nov. 15, which features speedy All-SEC tight end Jared Cook, the UF scout team didn't bother simulating Cook with the fastest tight end they could scrounge up. The UF scout team picked fleet freshman receiver Omarius Hines to mimic Cook, thinking that if the Gators' linebackers could keep up with Hines, they could contain Cook.
Florida won 56-6.
"After the game," Cronin said, "Omarius came running over to me and was asking, 'How many catches did he have? How many catches did he have?'"
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| Sooners wideout Ryan Broyles says the Sooners keep it up in the second half while foes get tired. (Getty Images) |
Dealing with the Oklahoma no-huddle is more convoluted than dealing with any one player, of course. The Sooners have turned the no-huddle into a 21st-century, high-tech version of their famed wishbone, which they used to bludgeon foes in the 1970s and '80s for the simple reason that opposing teams couldn't prepare for it. Nobody ran it with the precision, or the NFL-caliber athletes, of Oklahoma.
That was the wishbone of 1978, and it's the no-huddle of 2008. Nobody does it like Oklahoma, which this season became the first team in major college history to have a quarterback throw for 4,000 yards and two 1,000-yard running backs. That kind of skill, coming at the tempo Oklahoma operates, wears a defense down.
"Sometimes you can tell," said OU center Jon Cooper. "They're pointing fingers or their sideline is screaming. You can tell when they're breaking down."
The Sooners plan on it. They spend the summer going through hellacious conditioning drills in that heinous Oklahoma heat to get their bodies into shape for the physical, and mental, warfare of fall.
"Some time after halftime, the other team is getting tired and we still have a full tank," said Oklahoma receiver Ryan Broyles. "So many times we're able to run a play before they're even set."
Not this time. Not against this Florida defense. That's what the Gators say. That's how they've been preparing, anyway.
"At first, yeah, we were a little concerned about their no-huddle," said Florida cornerback Joe Haden. "But that's all we've been practicing against, and our (scout team) no-huddle is faster than Oklahoma's no-huddle. I guarantee that. We'll be ready."
